Rose Conway-Walsh on UK qualification recognition delays

Minister, I want to ask you about the process of getting qualifications obtained in Britain recognised in this state, particularly since the cessation of the mutual recognition of professional qualifications in 2021. I am aware that your department serves as the National Coordinator and the National Assistance Centre for Directive 2005-36EC on the recognition of professional qualifications and that this directive provides the main legal framework to facilitate the mutual recognition of the professional qualifications between the EU and the EEA Member States. Thank you very much Deputy Conway Walsh. As you correctly noted, the European Directive on the Mutual Recognition of Professional Qualifications ceased our general applicability to UK award holders post-Brexit, post-December 2020. Qualifications from the UK were automatically recognised during a transitional period which ran from 1st of February to 31st of December 2020. If a qualification was recognised during that time, that professional continued to then practice in Ireland or the EU. While this overall formula framework no longer applies to the recognition of qualifications from the UK, there is ongoing extensive experience within the various competent authorities, who in consultation with my department and with other government departments have developed revised pathways for recognition for applicants with UK professional qualifications. For anyone wishing to practice in a regulated profession, they must meet the professional qualifications required by law and should contact the relevant competent authority or regulator if they have queries or to advance that. There is no requirement to have a qualification recognised in order to seek employment in unregulated professions. There are, however, a small number of professions where it is not possible for Ireland to provide for continued recognition of UK qualifications in Ireland due to provisions in Irish law based on EU directives or regulations. Some of those relate to a requirement for establishment of residence in an EU member state and inevitably a Brexit as divergence begins to occur over time. It may be the case that recognition, that mutual recognition becomes more difficult in certain areas if standards and requirements begin to change and begin to diverge. My department does continue to engage with the UK Department for Business and Trade in this matter. At the most recent meeting in January 2025, both departments agreed to monitor developments at EU and UK level to assess impacts arising from any further UK or EU initiatives. Thank you. Go and Tara. Deputy, comments? Go and Tara. I think this is a real problem, Minister, and I think it speaks to the fact as well because in the north-south, in the recognition of people who are training in the south, we want to encourage student mobility across the island and that is the way things are progressing. Minister, there appears to be a particular issue in relation to CORU, the health and social care regulation body, and I'm aware in media reports in 2003 that stated that qualified Irish physiotherapists returning to Ireland from Britain where they attained their degree in one of that country's leading sports science universities had to wait over a year for their qualification to be recognised by CORU. At the same time, Esther Mary Darcy, the professional adviser with the Irish Society of Chartered Physiotherapists said we have the worst recruitment crisis in the history of state of the professional practices are screaming out for staff and I understand that CORU has to be thorough, but it's the length of time that it's taken that's the problem. If it's a capacity issue, then I think there needs to be more staff bought in. So, Minister, I'm also dealing with a case of a constituent from Mayo who has a postgraduate certificate in education in a university in England. She is registered to teach by the Teaching Council, but this accreditation body has deemed her to be shortfalls in philosophy of education and sociology of education. So, thanks, Stephanie. So, just your last point about the position query, of course, if you want to send that to my office, I'll happily take a look at the details of it. I will say, based on prior knowledge, before I was ever ministering in this department, the Teaching Council has a particular set of requirements. And somebody, even within the state, may come a cropper in terms of, you know, you mentioned, I think it was a philosophy of some of the courses. There is a very specific set of requirements in terms of undergraduate subject choice and then a, usually a postgraduate qualification in teaching methodology, and those two must be combined and must be followed in sequence to be recognised by the Teaching Council. So, I don't know the details of your constituent, I'm happy to take a look at that. But it may be less to do with the UK qualification and more to do with the qualification itself. So just to maybe flag that, maybe of interest, maybe of assistance to your constituent. There is provision within the CTA, the existing agreement, and sectors, some professionals such as veterinary, architects, legal and others, can come to an agreement, which would be, I suppose, arrived at between the two professional bodies and the sectors, and that would effectively reinstate the EU professional qualifications directive for that sector. That can be implemented by the competent authority on request, and will form part of future developments. Thank you, Minister. Minister, in that case, that person was paid less than her counterparts and is documented as an unqualified teacher, and my question is, how can she be registered to teach with the Teaching Council, yet be branded as an unqualified teacher? It just doesn't make sense. Now in October past, the Australian Government announced that the doctors from Britain, Ireland and New Zealand will have their ability to practice in Australia fast-tracked from under new changes introduced by regulators. Why can't we do the same here? We are in such a shortage of human capital here for the jobs to fill jobs. I think it is something we seriously need to consider. We are talking about welcome home to our diaspora and the gathering in the Cade Mead of Hallshire, but let us get the practical supports in place to enable our qualified citizens to return home and to fill the thousands of vacant public sector posts across health and social care and other disciplines. But again, I will go back to we need an all island approach as well to what is happening in education and third level education. We need to streamline across the island. We need to get ready for the constitutional change that is coming down the line. Minister. Thank you, Stephanie. So just in terms of the Teaching Council case, again I will take the detail away, but that is not uncommon, unfortunately, that people have different levels of accreditation or recognition within the system, notwithstanding the Teaching Council registration. I am not going to make any comment on the individual certification, I do not know, but just if it is of any assistance. I have come across a case of my own because I have just worked in the past and that is not uncommon at all and often it depends on the actual original qualifications pursued or the particular sub-choices pursued by the student and whether they meet the requirements or not. I suppose you have, as is the case of supplementaries, your supplementary spans a number of areas, so I think you were talking about, I missed you were talking about Australian returning? Yes. We have a policy to fast track and why can't we do the same here? For which professions? For which professions? For which professions? For the medical professions. For medical? Yes. For doctors in particular in medicine. Okay. So my own sister is a doctor. Doctors from Britain. And you see the doctors from Ireland are being fast tracked there. Yeah. Why can't we fast track our own who are living abroad? So I think we can because my own sister is a doctor, qualified Australian, returned to Ireland and now practicing. So it's evidently happening. Just from personal experience. Yeah. But in terms of the wider arrangement, I recently spent time in India for St. Patrick's Trade Mission. So I was engaged on the reciprocal arrangements there, of which there are many. And we have a reciprocal arrangement in multiple states around the world. If there are particular gaps, I'm again, open to hearing with them. It was not in the original question, so I don't . Thank you Minister. I'm happy to take a look at that. It's conscious of time. You